7 world trade center

No tower is immune from the ravages of the ever deepening economic collapse. Not even Manhattan’s so-called trophy towers, known as such because their outrageous prestige and sky-high rents render them must-have items among top investors.

So concludes Jones Lang LaSalle, which gave The Observer its most recent, and still unreleased, 2008 Skyline Review.

Since July, average asking rents at trophies like 9 West 57th Street, the GM Building and 7 World Trade Center have dropped 6.2 percent, from $109.61 a square foot to $102.85. Given how much more negotiable asking rents are these days, we’re guessing the taking rents are probably below $100.  read more »

WestLB, the German bank that for months has scoured New York for massive new offices, signed a lease on Dec. 2 for 129,000 square feet on the 50th through 52nd loors of Larry Silverstein’s 7 World Trade Center. Sources say the average rent for the three floors was in the high $70s a square foot.
Such is the enormity of the good news for a Downtown wracked by the collapse of Wall Street that Mayor Bloomberg and Mr. Silverstein will, in roughly 15 minutes, formally announce the lease at a pomp-filled news conference on the tower's 52nd (and top) floor.  read more »

From Real Estate Weekly: "Brokers say that the German bank WestLB has pulled away from doing a deal at 7 World Trade Center and is now looking at a host of options in midtown, including 114 West 47th Street, 1633 Broadway and 1290 Avenue of the Americas."

From The Real Deal: "Less than two months after HSBC backed out of a massive lease agreement at 7 World Trade Center, Silverstein Properties has reached a tentative agreement on a new lease with German lender WestLB, sources familiar with the discussions said. WestLB, a leading German financial institution, has agreed to relocate to the Lower Manhattan building with a 129,000-square-foot lease on the 50 to 52nd floors. Asking rents at the 1.7-million-square-foot tower range from $75 to $85 a square foot for the top two floors."

Tucked into Charles Bagli's gong-rattling New York Times pronouncement on the end of the local real estate boom were three gems to illustrate the point.

HSBC pulled out of a major lease at Larry Silverstein's downtown gem:  read more »

The gaudy peacock, the male of the peafowl species, frequently attracts and then mates with a seraglio of adoring peahens.

Similarly, NBC Universal, media giant of the peacock logo, has attracted a harem of brokers, all hoping to score the big deal that will garner the conglomerate more than 600,000 square feet in Manhattan, and garner the broker a sizable nest egg. “NBC is the 800-pound peacock in the market,” laughed one real estate insider.

But while the dazzling cock can satisfy multiple hens, NBC Universal can satisfy only one. It is, therefore, a very eligible bachelor.

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HSBC employees should soon, from their aerie atop 7 World Trade Center, be able to peer down at the morass of construction at the city-and-state controlled ground zero below.

The massive bank is poised to become landlord Larry Silverstein’s newest tenant at 7 World Trade. Now that HSBC has a lease pending on the 52-story tower’s top seven floors—comprising 280,000 square feet of the tower’s 1.7 million—7 World Trade is nearly full.

A knowledgeable source told us that a lease is indeed “out,” as commercial real estate’s insufferable jargon would have it, meaning that a lease exists, HSBC has a copy and its execs are eyeing the dotted line.  read more »

HSBC Bank is poised to become Larry Silverstein's newest tenant at 7 World Trade Center, with a lease pending on the last big block of space in the 52-story, 741-foot, two-year-old skyscraper on the edge of Ground Zero.

The banking giant has a lease out on 280,000 square feet of space comprising the top seven floors of the building, according to a knowledgeable source. While the lease has yet to be signed, insiders believe it's nearly a done deal. (We guess that means no more penthouse parties for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.)

Read more about the pending deal in Wednesday's print Observer.

The number of firms looking for at least 150,000 square feet in Manhattan, and the number of buildings that can accommodate them, could more or less now each be counted on one hand. Some contend that the number continues to shrink as the economy worsens. Other’s say there’s always a small universe of big players. Either way, brokers say they find themselves chasing after the same few lookers again and again.

The belle of this dreary ball is probably NBC Universal, which is looking for a place to house its new consolidated business operations center, which will include offices for chief executives like Jeff Zucker; a child-care facility; a conference center; a health care and fitness center; and an employee commissary.

And so when Lynn Calpeter, NBC Universal’s chief financial officer, visited Silverstein Properties’ 7 World Trade Center this month, tongues started wagging, particularly since she’s part of a caravan of muckety-mucks that has passed through the angular tower in recent weeks. Even Mr. Zucker, the president and CEO of NBC Universal, has stopped by.  read more »

NBC visited 7 World Trade Center on June 2, the most recent of more than one visit to Larry Silverstein’s gleaming downtown tower, whose top 10 floors are still available for lease. Sources say NBC was considering housing its new business operations center there.

“NBC has been back to 7 World Trade Center a number of times, with executives and different division heads poring over the building,” said a real estate insider, who, on a recent visit to the building, saw NBC representatives looking like “cats who swallowed the canary.”

Those “executives” included Jeff Zucker, the president and CEO of NBC Universal, according to another source.

A Silverstein spokesman said he would “not comment on nor confirm discussions with potential tenants.” But another broker familiar with NBC’s plans said the media giant has since moved on from 7 World Trade, and is now looking at SJP Properties’ under-construction 11 Times Square and properties along Eighth Avenue.  read more »

“Wow, look at the mist,” murmured Sarah Craig, a Vassar College freshman, as she and 60 other students walked onto the 52nd floor of Seven World Trade Center, developer Larry Silverstein’s glamorous office skyscraper that, this rainy afternoon, pierced the clouds.

Thanks to the top 10 floors still being up for lease, the penthouse hosts a lot of visitors — Mr. Silverstein’s publicist and his staff lead four to five tours a week — and lots of glamorous parties.

On Feb. 12, the starkly gorgeous concrete-and-glass space hosted babealicious swimsuit models celebrating the release of the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (the models traded their bikinis for cocktail dresses for a party that Silverstein Properties spokesman Dara McQuillan said was fabulous).

Of course, the Vassar students weren’t there to chat about star-studded fetes. The three classes — Intro to Urban Studies, Urban Geography and Architecture of the Modern World — had bussed in from Poughkeepsie and spent the day touring Chase Plaza and the perimeter of Ground Zero.  read more »